Over 36,000 people attended an April 12 rally in Los Angeles featuring Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez as part of their "Fight Oligarchy" tour. There was also music from Joan Baez, Neil Young, Maggie Rogers and others.

As the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian (BA) said recently in his social media message REVOLUTION #114, “Defeating Trump/MAGA fascism: Looking to some future elections... or working now to mobilize millions around this powerful unifying demand: The Trump fascist regime must go!”:

It is a very good thing that people are mobilizing in large numbers to express their outrage at the heartless and lawless actions of the Trump regime.

At the same time: It is crucial to have a clear understanding of what the Trump regime actually is, where it is rapidly taking things, why it is urgently necessary to defeat this regime before it is too late—and what is the way that could be done.

A crew of revcoms and supporters were out reaching the crowd in a big way with this urgent orientation and message.

The people in attendance were mostly white and middle class, but there were many other nationalities as well. A lot of Latino folks, millenials, and a smaller section of college students and gen Z'ers—some who came with parents, or groups of friends. This was the biggest rally held so far on this speaking tour and the size says something about how many people are deeply concerned with the situation we are in with a serious hunger to understand it and act to stop it. In their speeches, Bernie and AOC didn’t explicitly call the Trump regime fascist, but Bernie called it authoritarianism, he talked about the attack on the separation of powers, the attack on students for free speech and more. He started his speech with the fact that: “we are living in an extremely dangerous time.” But he did not channel this into the kind of protest that is urgently needed.

The revcoms were oriented to opening up what's concentrated in REVOLUTION #114 where Bob Avakian (BA) says:

The specific and essential thing that is represented and is being enforced by the Trump regime is not “oligarchy,” it is not “billionaires”: it is fascism. 

Fascism is a qualitatively different way that this system enforces its rule over people.

We were on a mission to spread this understanding, to get into what's needed to defeat this fascism, and to get into what's needed to make a revolution to overthrow this system that's given rise to this fascism and so many other atrocities. We were working to connect people up with Bob Avakian's analysis and understanding of this whole situation. And we were working to recruit people to get with THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity.

We distributed about 3,500 flyers of BA’s message REVOLUTION #114 and got out hundreds of copies of “We Need and We Demand: A Whole New Way to Live, A Fundamentally Different System,” which provides a concrete blueprint for what you would replace this system of capitalism-imperialism WITH after a revolution. We also distributed (for a donation) about 300 of the new pamphlets with key social media messages from Bob Avakian, produced by The Bob Avakian Institute, "Trump/MAGA Fascism: What We're Really Facing, Why, and What Must Be Done to Defeat It Before It's Too Late."

And we did sign up people who were serious about wanting to learn more, and get involved, with something more radical.

We did rounds of agitation to the people who were in line to get into the rally. Hundreds of people were already lined up by 7 a.m., and doors didn't open until 9 a.m. The agitation incorporated a summation of the importance of the mass protests on April 5, which was a very positive day and important beginning, but also hit at what BA gets into in #114:

At his rallies against “Oligarchy,” Bernie Sanders has revived the “Occupy” formula of the “99 percent” against the “one percent” of super-rich. But the problem is that nearly half of the “99 percent” are fascists.

We got into how this fascism comes out of the roots of America. Many people resonated when we argued that “this is fascism!” and you could tell from the crowds that they were hearing out the argument. Including why you're not going to appeal to these fascists based on the price of eggs. While some people did think the problem was that these "fascists in power are dividing us," a lot of people appreciated what we were saying about the roots of this fascism in white supremacy, patriarchy and vicious American chauvinism... and others were trying to mix it all together. A lot of people responded in agreement to us saying that “November 2026 is too late!” with cheers and applause. Off of the agitation, people took flyers and came up to our organizing table.

At the organizing table, we had a bunch of deep and wide-ranging debates and discussions. Most people agreed that the Trump regime is fascist, but the actual import and momentum of this is not as widely understood. Some thought we should just vote in the midterm election, not getting that even if elections are held, Trump has already said he won't respect elections he loses. A lot of people agreed with the need for mass sustained protest, but weren't sure millions could be mobilized in this way. Others raised big questions about fear and were unsure that those millions would withstand the fascist attacks.

Being able to wield and distribute the pamphlet with BA's analysis was so important in this situation—and a section of people were really hungry to go deeper.

We met a bunch of people who came to hear Bernie, but were actively looking for something more radical and were very excited to hear a deeper recognition of the unreformability of capitalism-imperialism, and that there was a force serious about—and recruiting for—revolution. We agitated about the fact that there is a strategy and leadership for this revolution, in Bob Avakian and the revcoms. We challenged people that now is the time to step into this revolution, as BA has said: "With thousands organized into the ranks of the revolution, now, millions can be won to revolution; and with millions won to revolution, there could be a real possibility for this revolution to win." There were a smaller number of people who stepped forward in response to this challenge.

We met people who had met the revcoms before, or read some of our materials. One college student had read “We Need and We Demand…” and had questions about whether or not a New Socialist Republic would guarantee the rights of the people and not go “corrupt” and get reversed back to capitalism. 

At the end of the speeches from AOC, Bernie and others, we reached the crowds flooding out of the rally—standing on a chair in the middle of the crowds leaving. We did sharp agitation on the two slogans, "In the name of humanity, we refuse to accept a fascist America!" and "This whole system is rotten and illegitimate! We need and we demand: a whole new way to live, a fundamentally different system!" Interestingly, three big themes got a very positive response: the need to defeat this fascism through mass sustained protest, making society ungovernable; the need for a whole better way to live and a radically different system—here we challenged the notion that we should be begging for the crumbs of empire for a "more fair share," when what's needed is getting rid of—and overthrowing—empire, to bring into being a radically different system; and the fact that this fascism comes out of the roots of this country. We drew on the title and substance of BA's social media message REVOLUTION #113: “The Trump MAGA fascists would have been on the side of the Confederacy in the Civil War, fighting to maintain, and expand, slavery.” This was met by cheers, people rushing to grab flyers, and some stopping in their tracks to hear more.

A lot of people took pictures of, and selfies with, the big sign of Trump wearing a Klan hood and Hitler mustache, calling Trump “A Thoroughly American Fascist Pig: Mein Trumpf." People also donated money for picket signs with that image on it too.

This was a significant outpouring, and it was important that the revcoms—bringing the truth that people urgently need—were able to have a real impact. And much, much more is needed.